Dcwinton,
Interesting comments on the Dead/Phish comparisons. I am a long time Dead afficionado (since 1973), and done the whole taper thing, amassing thousands of hours of material. Dick's Picks and the From The Vault series are HQ godsends to fans. I've seen Phish 30 or 40 times since 1993 as well. Page O'Connell and Trey Anastasio are very gifted musicians and the interplay between the two of them is electrifying at times.Give a listen some time to "Live Phish, 12/14/95 Broome County Arena". The tapes as well as the commercial release are widely availble (email me off list for a copy).Set 2 is almost 1 hour of unbroken exploration. I agree with your gimmicky remark though. To my mind, I find Jon Fishman (Drummer)and his clownish stage antics distracting. I don't think Mike Gordon's bass playing is in the same league with Page and Trey. What has killed the Phish concert experience for me are the fans. Too much begging for free tix, stealing, obnoxious seat surfing, nitrous use and other boorish behavior.
The media has pretty much made the "if you like the Dead, you must like Phish" thing into more than it is. Dead and Phish both allow taping, both handle their own ticket sales, both have legions of loyal tour heads, both are/were masters of live improvisational style, both have far more enlightened moments live rather than on the obligitory studio stuff. Too many "Touch Of Grey Heads" who came late to the Grateful Dead party (since Aug. 9, 1995), don't have them to groove to, so instead they try to wrap themselves around Phish as the second coming of the GD rather than allowing Phish to stand for their own style of musical communication. Witness Phish's own 2 year self imposed hiatus to slow the train down. I do appreciate Phish and what they can do on stage. Some nights have been absolutely other worldly. But like you, I stand firmly in the you-can-dig-the-Dead-without-digging-Phish camp.
